Colin leaned in closer to her. “Wow, you know how to work those things?”
Freya shrugged. “Not all of them, but it can’t be too hard. All firearms have a safety and a trigger. Point it at your enemies and hope for the best.”
He looked apprehensive.
Freya moved to another cabinet to find the large automatic rifles, the kind soldiers always wore slung over one shoulder. It didn’t take long for her to locate the missing piece, the clips, and tried cramming it in place.
It felt right. The clip clicked, and she handed it to Colin. “Everyone, grab one of these large ones over here and a spare clip. Those are your bullets. These will probably cause the most damage but take the least amount of skill.”
Colin cautiously slung the device over his shoulder and started loading his arms with more to bring up to the others. Once Gwen’s first team had taken their pick, Gwen rotated her people in and out of the armory while Freya assisted them with basic instruction.
Freya gave each of them a handgun as well. Even if they wouldn’t have the skill to hit anything, it could provide cover fire, or at least make them look more intimidating.
After one particular young woman watched Freya instruct enough people, she told Freya she could take over, leaving Freya free to return to the atrium. As she stepped back into the hall, she turned toward the State House, instinctually wanting to return to her old apartment. But after a few steps, she turned back to return through the clinic.
Old habits die hard.
They didn’t know who was in the State House or dome, and the Security system was the best way to find out.
As she approached, Aakil raised his eyebrows at her. “So. Are we going to fight anyone today or should we redecorate?”
She almost smiled. “We’re going to check the cameras to see if we’re really alone.”
“This was all rather anticlimactic. Don’t you think? And the place needs a good dusting, at the very least.”
“It was anticlimactic,” Colin responded, “Which is exactly why I’m nervous. It’s whenever we think we’ve won that the State has us right where they want us.”
Freya hadn’t thought of it, but Colin was right. It was too easy. They might have already walked into the State’s trap. She felt lightheaded, dazed, but knew this was no time for weakness. “Let’s move.”
With her gun drawn, she jogged behind Colin with Aakil at her side. A feeling of dread manifested in her core. It didn’t feel right to have Colin in the lead, exposed. He may look military with the heavy artillery slung over his shoulder, but he was far from it. At the turn of any corner, he could come face-to-face with the States’ goons.
Colin’s role was still vital. Without him, Aakil may figure out the Security system, but he couldn’t handle it with the precision or speed that Colin would. Those wasted moments could be enough to turn the tides in battle.
As they reached their first closed door, Colin inspected the idle scanner. He palmed it, his shoulders tensed as he looked around apprehensively. The scanner gave no response. No acknowledgment. No rejection. No alarms.
Next, Colin cocked his head to the side and tried turning the handle. The door swung open into a dark passage. Colin raised his gun and flashlight, but the moment he moved into the new hallway, the lights flickered on.
They continued through a labyrinth of halls and unlocked doors. After so many twists and turns, Freya suddenly became fearful of getting separated from Colin. She may never find her way back to the atrium without him. Just as Freya questioned if Colin had lost his sense of direction, they entered a large stale room.
There were geometric mounds all around. Without hesitation, Colin yanked a bedsheet off the equipment, causing an explosion of dust to trickle down around them. “Pull all the sheets off.”
Freya tucked her handgun into her waistband and got to work on unveiling the equipment.
Colin sat at a consul; his fingers flew rapidly over the keyboard. “Aakil, I could use a little help here. I want to turn on the cameras without activating the door locks.”
Aakil dropped the wad of sheets in his arms and scooted in next to Colin. Everyone fell silent in wait. If the door locks activated, they could be finished before they really started. Even worse, they might have locked themselves in, unable to return to the atrium or escape the dome.
Freya bit down on her bottom lip. This could be it for them, and there was nothing she could do to help. None of her limited skills applied. She felt so helpless. Useless. Hopeless. But that seemed to be the theme of her life since she woke up in the spacecraft.
Suddenly, all the monitors in the room flickered on. Colin drew in a sharp breath, closing his eyes as his head twisted to the side.
“Ha! Why do you ever doubt your Chief Scientific Advisor?” Aakil half yelled. He jumped up, pushing the door open. “See. Once you got me to the right place in the system, I knew I could override the code.”
Colin didn’t respond. He was so immersed in looking at all the screens. After a few moments, he muttered. “This place is a ghost town.”
“Yeah,” Aakil said. “I don’t think anyone’s here.”
“So far, all the apartments and common rooms are barren,” Colin reported. “It will take time to check everywhere, but I think we have the dome to ourselves.”
Somehow, that report didn’t feel right to her.
They couldn’t have just abandoned the dome. That would make them appear weak.
“What about the State House?”
Colin dashed over to a different set of monitors and cocked his head to the side. “We’ve got company. Apparently we still have a Head of State, and I’m not talking about you Freya.” As Freya closed the distance between her and Colin, he muttered. “There’s something familiar about that guy. I think I know him.”
“No, everyone we knew would be too old. He wouldn’t be—” Freya looked down at the monitor and froze.
My mind is playing tricks on me.
Regardless of how he aged in their time apart, or the fact she previously believed him to be dead, she instantly recognized the man sitting behind her former desk.
“Lewis?” She gasped.
Everything in my life except Colin was a lie. And even he hasn’t always been honest with me.
Colin narrowed his brows. “Lewis?”
Freya closed her eyes and turned her back to the others as her mind spun. She had some explaining to do; she just needed a moment to clear her head first. The past she never thought she needed to tell Colin about was now their first step to conquering the State. She just didn’t know how Colin would take the news, now, when there was so much on the line.
“Lewis.” Colin spat. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch!”
Chapter 21
Freya
Waking up to discover that she was on Earth instead of a colony world should have been the pinnacle of the State’s betrayal, yet somehow, this felt worse. She expected the State’s lies and deceit, but seeing Lewis’ deception shook her to her very core.
She looked down at the screen again. It was as though their time together instantly replayed in her mind. She could finally see the truth.
Lewis hadn’t rescued her; he hadn’t taken the fall for her crime. He had been rewarded for helping her ascend into Victor’s seat—exactly where the High Council planted her. They wanted her to help the rebellion move to the colony.
Lewis never loved me. I was nothing more than a mission.
She knew the military were trained to deceive people, yet she had fallen for his lies.
Stupid. And that’s why the High Council picked me. Because I’m weak.
A voice screamed in her mind. Move. Do something. Lead. Fight. She knew they needed to arrest Lewis and make him talk. Having the Head of State in the dome gave them an unexpected advantage they so desperately needed.
Her mind spun in search of the right plan. Regardless of what Lewis said or did, she had to keep her focus. All she had to do was explain the
ir history to Colin so that Lewis couldn’t use Colin’s ignorance as a tactic against them.
She took a deep, calming breath.
Colin loves me, no matter what. We’re in this together.
It was time to move. She looked up, ready to ask Colin to head somewhere private with her. As her gaze darted around the room, she realized that Colin was gone.
Her vision blurred in and out of focus. How did she miss him leaving? Her core clenched as her heart thudded out of control.
“Where did Colin go?”
Aakil narrowed his eyes. “I’ve got eyes on him. He’s running through a lot of different halls.”
Freya flung herself over to Aakil’s consul. “Did he say anything before he left?” Her skin blanched. It felt as though her heartbeat came to a halt.
“He said, ‘I’m going to kill that son of a bitch.’ Didn’t you hear?”
Freya gasped. Sweat glistened on her brow. “I—I must have been too stunned. Where is he going? Why didn’t you go with him?”
Aakil spun around in his chair to look at her. “Why didn’t you?”
Her face burned hot in shame. “I didn’t even realize he left.”
Aakil threw his hands out to the side. “Yeah, cuz he just bolted. I don’t know my way through those halls. If I lost sight of him, I’d be wandering aimlessly for hours.”
Her head moved back and forth. “If he’s really going to kill Lewis, we have to stop him. We need information. It’s a huge advantage for us to have him here, as long as we keep our heads and handle this correctly.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more. But does that sound like the Colin you know? Cuz if it does, sorry to tell you this, but that’s not him. And I know he’s your partner, but I’ve known him a lot longer than you have.”
She placed a steadying hand on the consul. “What do we do? We have to stop him.”
“We’re trapped! We can’t navigate around here enough to get to him in time.”
Memories of her prior life inside the dome flashed through her mind. She could find her way to the locations she frequented, but every time she had to travel a new route, Security was always there to guide her. It seemed she wasn’t the only one so reliant on this crutch that they feared exploring this space without Securities guidance.
They needed Colin to activate the system to direct people around this space, unless… “Aakil, I know Colin got you in before you reprogram the system, but can you try to do it without him. If you could activate the cameras, you could—”
“Got it!”
Aakil spun back to the consul, his fingers flying furiously over the keyboard. After a few failed attempts, he lit the correct path to the State House.
Freya withdrew her firearm from her waistband, ready to spring into action.
I just hope I’m not too late.
“Shit!”
Freya spun around at Aakil’s curse. She didn’t need clarification; she could see Colin on the monitor, having arrived at the State House.
She tried to swallow, but her throat was dry. “Aakil,” she rasped. “I don’t know if there is a Security speaker inside the State House, but something has to patch us through.”
“Right.” His fingers returned to the keyboard.
Aakil leaned closer to the monitor, checking so many lines of data whirling up the screen. “Got it.” He punched in his command and sat back.
Just as Freya leaned into the microphone, Colin flung open the office door, standing across from Lewis. “Lewis, there’s something I’ve wanted to say to you for a very long time.”
Lewis’ eyes widened. “Colin?”
Her heart stopped.
They know each other?
Lewis pushed back in his seat, as though the small distance could save him from his pending fate. It was a feeble motion, that of a man knowing he was about to meet his death.
Colin launched toward him, lifting Lewis out of his seat by his collar. Colin pulled back his left hand, gaining momentum with his right. He threw a punch into Lewis’ nose; his head snapped to the side. His limp body spun and slammed into the wall. Colin didn’t hesitate. He wound up again, his fist coming down hard on Lewis once again, and again, and again.
Blood splattered on the wall. Colin’s wet fist glimmered dark red in the light. Colin pummeled him repeatedly. No hesitation. No stopping for air. Only striking again and again until Lewis lay motionless, helpless, hopeless.
Move! Do something!
“Colin!” She nearly choked on his name. The sand in her throat made her gag. “Stop!”
He didn’t stop.
“Mate! We need him alive!”
“Please, Colin. Stop.”
Freya’s eyes welled with tears. Colin’s next strike lost momentum, hardly grazing Lewis. Colin took a step back; his chest heaved with every desperate breath. Freya saw Lewis’ motionless body slumped in a pathetic heap. Blood soaked his face, neck, and shirt.
Oh God. It’s too late. He’s already dead.
Gwen burst through the door, bow drawn. She looked back and forth between Colin and Lewis. “Is he still alive?”
As though to answer, Lewis gasped for air: his breath gurgled with fluid.
Freya let out a relieved breath.
“For now,” Colin sneered.
“Should I finish him off?” Gwen gestured to her weapon.
“No!” Freya and Aakil yelled into the microphone in tandem.
Colin took a few more steps away from Lewis. “Freya and Aakil said we need information from him.”
Gwen cocked her head to the side. “I don’t know that he’ll pull through. I thought it would be more humane to shoot him.”
Colin wiped his face, smearing blood across his cheek. “He doesn’t deserve kindness. Tie him up.”
“Uhhh,” Gwen hesitated. “He’s more likely to drown in his own blood than to try anything.”
“He’s military,” Colin spat. “Or was. I don’t care how pathetic he looks; don’t let him fool you. Guard him. If he tries to move, finish him.”
Colin exited the office. Gwen’s team moved in, rolling Lewis onto his side, trying to keep him breathing while binding his hands behind his back.
Freya looked at the consul, seeing her white knuckles gripping the edge.
Aakil started typing into the keyboard again before speaking into the microphone. “Colin, I need you back here.” He leaned over, glancing at a screen. “We’ve got company.”
***
Freya felt like she could faint. She didn’t know Colin was capable of such violence. And he couldn’t yet know that Lewis was once her lover.
Maybe I should have let Colin kill him.
She cringed, judging her monstrous thought. Lewis deserved to die; his title as the Head of State was proof enough. But right now, they needed him. They needed someone. Anyone. They needed someone to give up the State’s secrets.
Colin pushed into the large space, sweat dripped down his face. He kept his gaze cast downward. “I came as fast as I could. What’s happened.”
Aakil spun around and jabbed his fingers at two different screens. There was something about the way Colin avoided her gaze that made her stomach churn with dread.
Does he already know about my relationship with Lewis?
“Oh. That looks like some sort of work crew. They’re not close. They probably don’t know we’re here yet.” Colin nodded as he looked at the other screen. “I bet those people are from Hope.”
Despite her sudden nervousness around Colin, she craned her neck to see the second monitor. At first she didn’t know what they were looking at. She saw nothing but a deserted corridor. But a shadow moving on the floor made her look past the empty space to see a blur of people standing on the other side of the dome.
Colin dodged past her and tucked in beside Aakil. After he typed in some commands, she saw the red floor lights activate in front of the entrance.
“Is that going to be enough?” Aakil asked.
Colin leaned back
in his seat. “Hopefully they open the access and come inside. I’ve already programmed the microphone. Just talk into it. Tell them to follow the lights to the atrium. And send one of Gwen’s teams to arrest the work crew.”
Aakil looked at Colin sideways. “And where are you going?”
Colin’s glossed over gaze remained focused on the monitor. “I’ve got some things to take care of.”
On the monitor, they could see the door to the surface open, and a hulk of a man with a head full of thick blonde hair peered cautiously around the corner.
Delivered: A Young Adult Dystopian Romance (The State Series Book 7) Page 15